Obicna jela u Hvratskoj (Silver Fir (Abies alba Mill.) in Croatia). 2001. illus. 895 p. Hardcover. - Bilingual (Croatian / English)

This is a second hand copy of the emanwhile oput of print book. Handwritten dedication by one of the authorsv to a colleague on the title page. Else good copy.

The silver fir is a tree species with a very long tradition in Croatian forestry. The first specialist lists of forest trees prepared by the oldest forestry institution in Croatia established in 1765, the Forest Office of Krasno in North Velebit, include fir, beech and spruce. The inhabitants of Lika and Gorski Kotar are still linked to these tree species both economically and emotionally.

The fir in Croatia is represented in several forest associations, and the most widely distributed is the Dinaric beech-fir forest of Lika and Gorski Kotar, shaped by the application of silvicultural treatments into an ecologically and economically highly valuable selection forest. The beech-fir forest has a particularly important role in the protection of nature, because it is the principal constituent of the forests in the national parks of the Plitvice Lakes. Risnjak and North Velebit, as well as the nature parks of Velebit and Medvednica. Vast areas of selection beech-fir forests in the Dinaric mountain range have preserved biological balance and maintained high biological diversity.

In some of the areas of its Dinaric range, the silver fir is considerably threatened by a new kind of forest dieback, mainly due to its unfavourable geographic and relief position which accentuates the harmful effects of industrial and traffic emissions. The harm inflicted in this way is remedied with special procedures of selection forest regeneration. Fir is ecologically, economically and traditionally the most important Croatian conifer, accounting for 10 % of the forest fund. while selection forests represent an important ecological stronghold of the most densely forested Croatian area. A vital need was therefore identified to collect all professional and scientific knowledge on this tree species
in one place.